


You Can Stop Running Now

by Finduilas



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek Leaves, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, M/M, Post 3a, but Stiles comes for him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finduilas/pseuds/Finduilas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek leaves Beacon Hills with Cora, but Stiles comes for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Stop Running Now

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt and Beta'd by the amazing Kedreeva. <3
> 
> [ Also posted on Tumblr](http://finduilasclln.tumblr.com/post/63083395725/you-can-stop-running-now-x-x-its-derek-that)

It’s Derek that senses him first, as he sits up straight on the motel bed and looks at the door. His mouth falls open but no words come out and in the end, it’s Cora who speaks first, her lips curling into a smile as she shakes her head slightly. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Derek swallows down the tightness in his throat, his eyes focused on the door – still closed.

“What’s he…?” Cora asks, but when she looks at Derek, she falls silent for a second. “Are you okay?” she asks, frowning at him.

When Derek still doesn’t say anything, Cora gets up from behind the desk.

“It’s just Stiles,” she says, looking at Derek weirdly as she goes to the door and opens it.

Derek can see Stiles jump slightly, when he comes into view, then he exhales on a smile and says: “Freaking werewolves. Can’t even take a minute to gather your thoughts before knocking on the door.”

“I can close it in your face, if you’d like?” Cora says, sounding amused. “Give you some more time?”

“Funny,” Stiles says, and walks past Cora as he enters the room.

“What happened?” Derek asks, pushing himself up off the bed and crossing his arms in front of his chest. Because if Stiles is here, that must mean shit is going down in Beacon Hills and it must be bad.

“You left!” Stiles accuses, like he really can’t believe Derek even has to ask.

“What?” Derek frowns, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see Cora biting back a smile.

“You ran!” Stiles says, and Derek doesn’t even have to have werewolf senses to be able to tell that Stiles is upset. “The second it was all over, you just ran.”

“I didn’t…” Derek starts, shakes his head, “Everything was… they’re all gone, or dead. There’s no threat anymore.”

“So what?” Stiles asks. “Evil’s defeated and that makes it okay to just up and leave? Without even saying goodbye? Without letting us know where you were going?”

“I didn’t know I had to answer to you, Stiles,” Derek says with a huff.

“Answer to m – ?” Stiles says incredulous, “No, you’re right. You don’t owe me an explanation, or a goodbye. You’re right. What the hell was I thinking, right? That maybe with everything that happened, you would’ve gotten it through your thick skull that…”

Stiles stops himself, lets out an annoyed sigh as he bounces back and forth nervously, before he clenches his jaw.

“You’re running,” he finally says, sticking his hands deep in his pants pockets.

There’s a silence over the room that stretches until Cora awkwardly clears her throat and gestures towards the door.

“I think I’m gonna…” she says, her eyes shifting between Derek and Stiles.

“Cora…” Derek starts, but he isn’t quite sure whether he wants to stop her or say ‘thank you’.

“I think you two probably need to have a talk,” Cora says, and with her hand of the doorknob she looks at Derek and adds: “I think it’s probably long overdue.”

And then the door clicks softly shut and she’s gone.

Stiles sniffs as he looks around the room, stubbornly refusing to look at Derek.

“Didn’t think you’d be the kind of guy to rent a motel room.” He shrugs. “Figured you were more the ‘squat in an abandoned warehouse’ type…”

“Cora,” Derek simply says, by way of explanation.

Stiles smiles softly, and Derek can tell he gets it.

“I didn’t run,” Derek says, when Stiles gingerly sits down on Cora’s bed, right on the edge, as if he doesn’t want to disturb the made-up sheets.

“You didn’t stay,” Stiles says, his voice just a tiny hint of petulance.

“I didn’t think anyone would mind,” Derek says honestly, because he feels like it’s the least he can do after Stiles drove all the way over here.

Stiles snorts, then pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He seems way too tired for just the drive over.

“I thought with Scott being an Alpha, and the Darach and the Alpha Pack gone…” Derek says. “I didn’t think I was needed anymore.”

“You’re an idiot,” Stiles says, and he still stubbornly refuses to look at Derek.

“I did nothing but mess everything up, okay?” Derek says, hard. “Everything that happened, your dad being taken… And I didn’t even know it was her!”

“Because she tricked you!” Stiles all but shouts.

“I let myself be tricked,” Derek says.

“That’s not how it works, and you know it,” Stiles says, as he deflates. “Look, I know what I said at the hospital, and… I was upset and I wasn’t thinking straight, and I could’ve told you that if you hadn’t disappeared the second things were over.”

“You were right,” Derek says.

“You know what matters?” Stiles asks, skipping over Derek’s self-pity as if he’d never spoken. “That we came to you, and you believed us. Even though she was there. Even though she was trying to convince you otherwise.”

Derek can still see the look on Stiles’ face, pleading for him to trust him. And he doesn’t quite know why it was never even a question where his loyalty lay. Where his trust lay.

Derek finally nods, not quite sure what to say. He sits down on the edge of his bed, too far away from Stiles, but not quite daring to come nearer.

“Are you planning on coming back?” Stiles asks, eyes focusing on how his hands rub together.  

“I’m not needed there.” Derek shakes his head, and is rewarded with a pillow square in the face. “What the…?” he asks, but Stiles is already up and pacing around.

“Are you kidding me?” Stiles asks, his voice loud and angry. “Are you really that blind?”

“Isaac has Scott now,” Derek says, and he likes to pretend that doesn’t hurt. “Scott is an Alpha, and he has Deaton to tell him the stuff he doesn’t already know.”

“What about me?” Stiles asks, and his voice turns about a million times more vulnerable than it had just been.

“You have Scott,” Derek says, and ducks his head. “Lydia…”

“I didn’t realize there was a limit to the number of people I could care about,” Stiles says, deadpan.

“I…” Derek says, the word stuck in his throat because he’s not entire sure he’s ready for what Stiles is implying. “You drove all the way out here…” Derek finally says, after staring at Stiles for what seems like an eternity.

“Yeah,” Stiles says, hugging his arms around his chest like he needs the support. “I wouldn’t have done that for someone who isn’t needed back home.”

Derek closes his eyes, breathes in deeply, and all he can smell is Stiles. When he opens them, Stiles is standing closer to him. Derek looks up at Stiles from where he sits on the edge of the bed, and as Stiles inches a tiny bit closer yet, Derek lets his legs fall open to make room.

“Home…” Derek says, and he isn’t sure if it’s a question or a statement.

But when Stiles ducks his head down, Derek finds himself meeting him halfway, catching Stiles’ lips with his as he presses down gently. It’s his body answering the question.

Stiles’ lips are warm and tentative against his, and he doesn’t try to push or deepen the kiss. It’s like he’s offering, not taking.

Derek isn’t sure when he closed his eyes again, but he opens them again when Stiles pulls away, his fingers tracing the edge of Derek’s jawline with precision.

“I didn’t come here to drag you back,” Stiles says, softly. “And I don’t expect you to make a decision right now. I just want you to know that you’re an idiot if you think you’re not wanted or needed in Beacon Hills.”

Stiles dips down again, for a split second, but the kiss is over by the time Derek tries to put up his hand and use it to hold him close. He steps out of the circle of Derek’s personal space and heads back towards the door.

“Think about it,” Stiles says, a smile on his face that is half-fear, half-anticipation. He looks at Derek one more time and, before Derek can work up the courage, he’s gone.

Derek lets out a deep breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He throws his head back and looks up at the ceiling for a few seconds before he can bring himself to move. He grabs his phone, punches speed dial and waits for an answer.

“Cora?” he says, and he doesn’t even realize he’s smiling ear to ear. “Come back to the motel, we have to pack.”

Cora doesn’t even sound surprised when he adds, “We’re going home.”  


End file.
